Marine Sciences

I was listening
to Freakonomics Radio a few days ago, and there was a story about "faking
it." The premise was the following: for the purpose of streamlining
communication, "greasing the wheels" of social interaction, we all
fake it. We may imply we are more spiritual or religious than we truly
are (especially when visiting the bible belt), talk about politics
dispassionately although we may feel strongly about a particular party or
ideal, or represent our professions in an oversimplified way to
"impress" or gain fleeting credibility.

The end of the year and beginning of the next is always a very crazy time for me. I have to admit that once I went a month without a blog it was so difficult to come back to it. Inertia is a very powerful thing.

I want to rebel against this statement, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” I have been noticing it lately, and it has gotten me thinking. My sense is that this is a martyr¹s statement about self - sufficiency, the sentiment being lauded in a research environment. However, this is a statement that perpetuates the inability for people to delegate and take responsibility for communicating effectively in their delegation. This statement should be, “If you want something done YOUR way, do it yourself.”

I had a long conversation yesterday about the things I wish I knew straight out of graduate school with a friend who was struggling communicating with his boss. He was caught up in needing to be right and feeling criticized in a way he perceived as unfair. After our talk, I was struck by how much really good advice I had on this subject and decided a blog entry might be in order.